Protector, Protect Her
by Irhaboggles
Summary: Mr. Snuggles fancied himself as Dawn's big brother, though he knew it was not true. But he took his role as her guide and guard very seriously. After one particularly close call left him deeply shaken, he took it upon himself to find new ways to keep Dawn safe, but when Dawn's childish power goes into overdrive, all of that is put on the back burner...


Although Mr. Snuggles was not really Dawn's brother, what with him being a stuffed toy teddy bear while she was a living, breathing poodle and all, he still liked to look at their relationship that way because they literally had been together for their entire lives. He had been a gift from Dawn's father on the day she was born, and the very first time their paws ever touched, his first inklings of sentience had started. It really was as if they had both been born at the same time, coming to life in different ways, but still coming to life together nonetheless. Now, technically, this would've made them twins, but Mr. Snuggles still liked to view himself as the older one. As a teddy bear, it was an innate job of his to protect, guide and care for Dawn. As such, he saw himself as her big brother, though they were literally the same exact age.

Mr. Snuggles was beholden to his unofficial job as one of Dawn's caretakers (his core command and code being three simple words: "Protector, protect her!") and the two spent their entire lives together. Neither of them ever went anywhere without the other, and that even applied when Dawn went out in public. As far as she was concerned, Mr. Snuggles really was her brother, and even though he could not speak (what with being a stuffed toy teddy bear and all) she still felt as though he could communicate. All of their exchanges happened innately, in something even deeper and more mysterious than something like telepathy, but either way, Dawn really did see him as a living being (or at least a sentient being) and she treated him as such. He was not just a toy, at least not to her. He was more than that, so he would be treated as more than that.

"Oh, look, Mr. Snuggles! Sweets!" the young girl cried as she held him out in the direction of what looked like a giant gumball machine.

_Oh! They look yummy! _He marveled silently, but Dawn had "heard" him perfectly, and she agreed, quickly skipping on over to the machine and pushing a button to get one of the little candies to come out into her open palm. Right before she could taste it, though, the crazy old chicken lady in whose science lab she was currently standing swooped in and yanked the little ball away from her with a terrified squawk.

"Those aren't sweets!" she cried as she swiped the "gumball" from Dawn's hand. Dawn pouted, hurt, but before she could throw a fit, the chicken lady explained sheepishly, "They're mini particle fusion bombs!"

But before the girl could mourn the loss of her sweet too much, her short and childlike attention span was quickly turned onto another object of fasciation for her. This time, it was a tall and handsome white mouse. Looking up at him in awe, she reached out to shake his hand.

"Hello, Mr. Big Mouse!" she cried, and he shook her hand just as heartily as she shook his. But then she held up her "brother".

"You have to shake Mr. Snuggles' hand too!" she instructed, and to her secret surprise and pleasure, Big Mouse obliged. It wasn't often when someone indulged in her childish fantasies so quickly, but _he_ did, and Dawn smiled as Mr. Snuggles had his paw shaken by Big Mouse. But that pleasure was quickly zapped when the mouse accidently misnamed Mr. Snuggles.

"Hello, Mr. Snuggly!" he said and Dawn was quick to lash out at him.

"SNUGGLES!" she corrected, ripping the bear away from the mouse. But while the mouse, the chicken, and their hamster friend all looked taken aback by Dawn's swift and fearsome retribution, Mr. Snuggles was just as indignant as Dawn was.

_Serves 'im right! _The bear harrumphed. _Mistakin' me name like that! How rude of 'im!_

_I know, right? _Dawn squeezed him tighter to her chest. _Your name wasn't even that hard! The mouse just must be stupid!_

But just like before, it didn't take Dawn long to forget her irritation, and suddenly, she was off prancing through the chicken's lab again.

"Dawn won a competition to spend a day at the lab with me," the chicken lady replied with a pained expression upon her feathery face.

"Daddy bought me a squillion entries, to make sure I won!" Dawn agreed proudly with the chicken.

_No one could've deserved it more! _Mr. Snuggles agreed silently, and he felt a soft laugh vibrate up from Dawn's chest and into his. As far as she was concerned, he was 100% correct! She was, after all, the daughter of a brilliant scientist, so it was only natural that she, of all the children in London, deserved to be the one walking into this lab here and now. She reckoned herself a child prodigy, with more knowledge in one finger than most kids her age had in their entire bodies, especially as it pertained to science.

And in fact, her father's connection to science was what prompted her to enter the competition at all! Alongside her competitive drive to win at anything and everything (even if it had nothing to do with anything she might've been interested it), her interest in the sciences drew her into the raffle. She figured that since she was sort of not allowed in Daddy's lab (unless he was there to supervise, which he usually wasn't) then she could just go play in someone else's for the time being, and then come home and brag about it to Daddy later. All those thoughts led her to enter the raffle, and this was the result of her subsequent win. But she had not come here to run boring and complicated experiments like Daddy, she had come here to play! And she was very clear about that...

"Let's have a tea party! Oooh! What does this button do? Ohhh! Pretty, pretty, pretty! How shiny!" Moving at lightspeed, the young poodle bounced to and fro all over the lab, excitement literally bursting out of her as she laid hands on anything and everything she could reach. She wasn't even aware of her three hosts' attempts at trying to keep her under control. As far as she was concerned, they were only dimly playing along with her, but she smiled to herself. She had boundless energy. No adult could ever keep up with her! So she continued to run freely around the lab, ogling everything with a childish and possessive sense of interest and entitlement while the others tried to catch her and calm her back down.

_How cool! How big! How fun! How bright! How new! How interesting! _Mr. Snuggles marveled at everything Dawn did, clinging excitedly to her arm as they ran around their latest playground. It had nothing on Dawn's father's lab, but it was still pretty neat, all things considered.

"Oh! Look, Mr. Snuggles! A hot tub!" the girl finally cried, hopping up onto the edge of a large vat full of glowing pink water.

_It looks so warm and bubbly! _The bear mused as he peered down into the tub Dawn was holding him over.

"We've got one of these in all our houses!" Dawn bragged to her three hosts, then she prepared to jump.

"NOT IN THERE!" she was dimly aware of the chicken crying out in dismay, but it was too late to stop her. Dawn was already leaping into the-

"Woah!" she uttered a surprised cry as she was caught mid-jump, suddenly in the arms of the big white mouse. But the surprise of his sudden intervention caused her to drop Mr. Snuggles.

"Mr. Snuggles!" real panic entered her voice as she reached out to him as he fell away from her. He managed to catch one last glimpse of her, hearing her scream out his name once, and then everything went very pink and very quiet.

As a stuffed bear, Mr. Snuggles was never in any danger of drowning, so he had no concern over that issue as he felt himself sinking through the pink liquid. What really caused him panic, though, was thinking about Dawn, and imagining her following after him into this hot tub. The instant his fur touched the "water", he realized what a dangerous mistake Dawn had almost made. Though they both had equally been fooled, genuinely thinking that this was only a nice little hot tub, Mr. Snuggles only needed one touch to realize that it wasn't. He couldn't explain it, and it wasn't really causing him any distress, but he knew immediately that it had been a good thing that Big Mouse had managed to save Dawn before _she _ever touched the liquid. It was too thick and heavy to be normal water, and that was part of the reason Mr. Snuggles was relived Dawn did not join him after all. He could float through it without ever worrying about drowning, but the same could not be said for her. Had she fallen in, she would've struggled to get out. The implications and visions of such a scenario made Mr. Snuggles shudder.

_ Thank you, Big Mouse, _the bear thought to himself as he continued to be dragged deeper and deeper under. He was so infinitely relieved Dawn had not suffered a similar fate. This tub was deeper than it looked, and who knew what sort of tragedy would've befallen her if she had managed to climb inside? He instantly cursed himself for failing to keep her safe. It was his job as her protector and friend to guide and guard her all throughout her life, but he had failed in this duty, nearly agreeing with Dawn about how fun a dip in this "hot tub" would've been. His own ignorance and shortsightedness nearly cost Dawn a very steep and irreversible price. He had failed his one job and sole purpose in life and he could hear that commanding voice in his head, disappointedly reminding him, "Protector, protect her!"

The guilt of what he had almost done (and almost hadn't done) would stick with Mr. Snuggles forever. And it was rivaled only by the embarrassment he felt at needing to pass on his protective mantle to someone else, some random stranger whom he and Dawn had only just met today. A strange mix of gratitude and envy was what Mr. Snuggles was now feeling towards Big Mouse, but before he had the chance to wallow in his personal guilt and shame any longer, he suddenly felt himself being pulled back up out of the thick, sticky pink goo.

"I got him!" that was the first thing Mr. Snuggles heard as he remerged from the dark depths of the container. It was Big Mouse.

_Blast! He's saved me too! _The bear thought, in anger, shame, gratitude and awe. The mouse had swiftly leapt behind the controls of what was essentially a giant crane, expertly fishing Mr. Snuggles out of the goo before dropping him safely back into Dawn's anxious arms again.

_Thank goodness! _Mr. Snuggles felt Dawn think and feel as she hugged him close. For just a second, then, even the other three people in the lab (the mouse, chicken and hamster) could see the genuine relief and love etched onto her face as she was reunited with her precious brother.

_I'm sorry, Dawn, _Mr. Snuggles replied guiltily as Dawn continued to hug him. _I didn't mean to scare you and I didn't mean to fall in. Are you ok?_

_Yes, yes, fine, I'm fine! Much better, in fact, now that you're back._

_Ok, ok, that's good..._

Once Dawn's terror had been squelched, her emotions quickly turned to annoyance and frustration with her hosts. In her lopsided view of the world, she had been totally innocent, and it was _they _who were at fault, and it was _them _who had nearly "killed" Mr. Snuggles. Even though Dawn was the one who so recklessly jumped in, she managed to turn the blame around onto the others, silently berating them for not keeping things under tighter lock and key, nearly allowing her to make the biggest mistake of her life.

_It was their fault I didn't know any better! They didn't tell me! _She griped to Mr. Snuggles.

_You're right! _He agreed. _They shouldn't have just left that goo out in the open like that! _But even though he was on Dawn's side of the fight, just like always, a newfound uncertainty had washed over him, and just for a second, he wasn't quite so sure. Perhaps some of the blame did fall upon their three hosts, for not better covering up their more dangerous experiments, but wasn't some of the blame on him and Dawn too for jumping into the tub without even thinking or waiting or asking first?

But while Mr. Snuggles was beginning to have doubts, Dawn wasn't. Fears assuaged, anger and irritation quickly set in. She was quick to amp up the sugary sweetness in her voice as she addressed her hosts once more, but no one was fooled by it as she swiftly kicked two of them in the shins as hard as she could.

The only one she spared was Big Mouse, because he had been the one to save Mr. Snuggles. Like Mr. Snuggles, Dawn was not totally without honor, and although she did have an inconveniently short memory and attention span, there were some things that never ever faded from her mind, like grudges and gratitude. She still shot him a glare for grabbing her so quickly that she had dropped Mr. Snuggles at all, but she did not kick him. Instead, as the chicken lady started to push her to the door, she only growled at them all before swearing her revenge against them, first for refusing to play with her, and then for nearly costing her her teddy bear, and then for kicking her out after barely 30 minutes in the lab (even though the raffle prize was supposed to involve and entire _day_). She scowled at them all warningly as she took her leave of the lab to go home.

"That silly professor was so nasty, wasn't she, Mr. Snuggles?" Dawn complained once she returned to her bedroom.

_Yes, she was! _The bear agreed, growing indignant on Dawn's behalf, just like any good friend would, but that lingering doubt from earlier remained. Dawn shook her own head with an unhappy sigh, just a trace of genuine sadness creeping over her childish anger. At the same time, then, Mr. Snuggles finally dared to suggest the thing that had been plaguing him ever since their close call with the hot tub.

_Say, Dawn, d'you ever think we might've been to blame for that? _

_What?! What do you mean, Mr. Snuggles?_

_I mean, well, you nearly got seriously hurt back there, and all because we didn't look more carefully at the labels on the side of the tub!_

_Ha! Nonsense! It was all that stupid professor's fault!_

_But Dawn- _

_No, Mr. Snuggles, we are not to blame!_

_I don't mean that, Dawn, I mean, what if, maybe we ought to start thinking more carefully next time we go into a lab. Maybe that's why your dad never lets us play around in his? _

_Don't be silly, Mr. Snuggles! He's just busy with business! But he knows we deserve to play in the lab!_

_Well, aren't you at least a little... shaken by all of this?_

But before Dawn could even answer, Mr. Snuggles already realized that he knew the answer. For some reason, falling into that gel had been an eyeopener for him, causing him to mature and feel more protective of Dawn than ever before. He wasn't quite sure what that goo had been, or what it had done to him, but he was sure that he was seeing life in a new way now, an older way. Which was something Dawn had yet to do. She was still stuck in her same silly mindset as before, mindless and carless as she danced on through life. While he could not stop thinking about the events that had transpired earlier that day, it seemed that Dawn had already put it mostly out of her mind. But how and why? How and why was anyone with a good head on their shoulders able to forget such a serious and traumatic event so quickly? But certainly seemed as though Dawn had.

It was then that Mr. Snuggles began to wonder. It was a slightly unrelated topic, but he wondered all the same. Because Dawn was the only child he ever came into contact with, he had little knowledge outside of her and how she lived. But now he couldn't help but wonder, when would Dawn grow up? He didn't know how long childhood was supposed to last, but for some reason, he began to wonder if Dawn's own hadn't gone on for longer than normal. And he didn't just mean mentally. He meant physically as well.

As a baby, she had grown up fairly fast, but then there reached a point when she began aging less and less. There were moments when Mr. Snuggles would question it, and this was one of those times. For some reason, he couldn't help but wonder and privately ask why Dawn wasn't growing up. He could feel it deep inside, in some place even deeper than his stuffing, that no normal child aged this slowly. But for some reason, Dawn did. How? And why? And would there be some way that he could help her try to grow up? He had never seen a mature child before, so he had no idea how people grew up, and if there would be some way he could help Dawn along in that future goal.

It wasn't that he disliked her as a child, not at all! It was just that, well, if being a child really was going to make her so callous and careless, up to the point in which she would totally forget about a near-death experience in favor of petty annoyance at a grownup for failing to play with her, then Mr. Snuggles couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't time for a change after all. He really did love Dawn just as she was, but the mindset she had now was dangerous, and it was his duty as her protector to keep her safe from any and all dangers, including herself.

But at the same time, Mr. Snuggles knew that the problem of growing up and becoming wiser and more aware was not one that was going to be solved over night. He could sense that Dawn was still caught up on the professor's rejection, and even though it seemed silly to him, he knew it meant a lot to her. As such, he was quick to assume his role as her comforter and suggest they do something to take her mind off of her worries.

_I know something that will cheer you up: a dress-up, girly, princess party!_

And Dawn was quick to agree with that, but while she ran off to get some dresses and accessories, Mr. Snuggles couldn't help but keep on thinking. Was it time for Dawn to grow up? Perhaps, if it meant that she would be safer in the long run, then yes. But how would he go about helping her grow up? He had no knowledge about how children developed, because Dawn was the only child he knew!

But the problem was quickly put out of his mind when Dawn put her favorite tiara on. It was another gift from her father, given to her on one of her birthdays (Snuggles could no longer remember the exact number), right around the time she seemed to stop aging. But Mr. Snuggles failed to see that last connection. Instead, he was distracted as she suddenly began to tremble and paw confusedly at her head.

"Something's happening, Mr. Snuggles," she said, almost sounding afraid. Mr. Snuggles was quick to come to her aid.

_What? What is it, Dawn? What's wrong?! Are you hurt?!_

But she didn't answer. Instead, she began to laugh, and laugh and laugh. It grew louder and higher-pitched, it was almost nightmarish to behold. And then suddenly, the entire world was bathed in a blinding pink glow, similar of the stuff from the hot tub earlier, but the moment the light dimmed away, so had all of Mr. Snuggles' thoughts about that tub and all of the events around it, including Dawn's need to start growing up.

Gone were Mr. Snuggles' thoughts about growing up and gone was his concern over their earlier NDE. Instead, all that remained was a dream. A fantasy to conquer the entire planet! Together, they would make the world their oyster and everything in it would be a pearl for them to own. Dawn and Mr. Snuggles were gone, all that remained now were the Princess and her faithful bodyguard soldier, Sir Snuggles. He only had one duty to his princess as her champion and knight in fluffy pink armor and it was this:

"Protector, protect her!"

**AN: Sorry this took me so long to write, Zarius, but here you go! Finally got it done!**

**For all my other readers, it's just Snuggles' thoughts on the first half of the "Pink Dawn" ep. **

**I use Zarius' theory that Dawn's tiara prevents her from aging while also adding in a few of my own (though they only work within the world of this fanfic)**

**My theory in this fic is that, here, Snuggles is entirely his own character, and not just a fever dream of Dawn's that she brought to life. As such, when he falls into Squawk's gel, it amplifies his own personality and makes him even more protective of Dawn than ever before. This actually turns out good, though, because it brings him into his first steps of growing up. He was about to have Dawn join him, but then her own dip with Squawk's gel (via the already-magic tiara) overrode all of that, leading to the rest of the events of the ep as we know it. Hope you all enjoyed! **


End file.
